68-74 Main Street
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FORM B − BUILDING
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION
MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES BUILDING
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Photograph
Topographic or Assessor's Map
Recorded by: Bonnie Parsons
Organization: Pioneer Valley Planning Commission
Date (month / year): March, 2010
Assessor’s Number USGS Quad Area(s) Form Number
32C-017 Easthampton NTH.2129
Town: Northampton
Place: (neighborhood or village)
Address: 68-74 Main Street
Historic Name: Kirkland Blocks
Uses: Present: commercial and residential
Original: commercial
Date of Construction: 1848
Source: Registry of Deeds 126.141 & Gazette,
March 5, 1921 Style/Form: Italianate
Architect/Builder:
Exterior Material:
Foundation: granite
Wall/Trim: brick/brownstone/granite/steel
Roof: not visible
Outbuildings/Secondary Structures:
Major Alterations (with dates):
Windows replaced to match originals, ca. 2008.
Brownstone lintel replaced by steel, unknown date.
Condition: good
Moved: no | x | yes | | Date
Acreage: 0.031 acres
Setting: This is a corner building in downtown
Northampton.
INVENTORY FORM B CONTINUATION SHEET [NORTHAMPTON] [68-74, 76-88 MAIN STREET]
MASSACHUSETTS HISTORICAL COMMISSION Area(s) Form No.
220 MORRISSEY BOULEVARD, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 02125
Continuation sheet 1
NTH.929
___ Recommended for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
If checked, you must attach a completed National Register Criteria Statement form.
Use as much space as necessary to complete the following entries, allowing text to flow onto additional continuation sheets.
ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION:
Describe architectural features. Evaluate the characteristics of this building in terms of other buildings within the community.
The Harvey Kirkland Block is a three-story brick building with brownstone trim at sills and lintels. The building is three bays wide
and five bays deep under a flat roof with an elaborately corbelled Italianate cornice at the roofline. The three-bay north façade
on the first story is divided by substantial granite piers. The two outer bays are doorways – on the west to the upper stories and
on the east to the first floor commercial space. The large center bay is a glass storefront. The first story has a steel lintel above
the granite piers. On the east elevation the first story has a fine storefront in its two southernmost bays with a center recessed
entry flanked by multiple light store windows. Windows here and on the upper stories are nearly full-length and have 6/6 sash.
At the second story, the building has 6/6 sash windows with straight lintels and sills except for the center bay of the north façade
that has a triple window composition with a center window of 4/4 under a two-light transom sash flanked by two windows with
four vertical lights. The third floor repeats the pattern with a three-part Palladian window composition flanked by two arched
windows with 6/6 sash. Third floor windows of the east elevation are like those of the second floor with straight sills and lintels.
HISTORICAL NARRATIVE
Discuss the history of the building. Explain its associations with local (or state) history. Include uses of the building, and the role(s) the
owners/occupants played within the community.
From Form B of 1975: “The Victorian brick block on the corner of Main and Pleasant Streets is the only remaining bloc of several
built on Shop Row, Main Street, by merchant Harvey Kirkland. This block was originally occupied by the Holyoke Bank and was
built in 1848. In December of 1848, Kirkland conveyed a lot of land, ‘being principally covered by the Holyoke Bank, a new Brick
building lately erected by the grantee and being designated as lot #19 in a plan, 11.416’ to J.H. Butler.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY and/or REFERENCES
Beers, F. W. County Atlas of Hampshire Massachusetts, New York, 1873.
Hales, John G. Plan of the Town or Northampton in the County of Hampshire, 1831.
Miller, D. L. Atlas of the City of Northampton and Town of Easthampton, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Philadelphia, 1895.
Walker, George H. and Company. Atlas of Northampton City, Massachusetts, Boston, 1884.
Walling, Henry F. Map of Hampshire County, Massachusetts, New York, 1860.
Registry of Deeds, Hampshire County, 113.446, 124.397 & 398, 126.141, 141.516, 163.685, 397.281